A Valley step-mom wants answers after she claims a school bus driver left her son at a gas station after he missed his stop.
The 12-year-old’s usual bus stop is on 32nd Street and Chandler Boulevard in Ahwatukee, but instead, he was dropped off at a gas station more than two miles away.
“He’s pretty upset. Absolutely. He’s pretty shook up by the fact that he… one, didn’t quite know where he was, how he was going to get home. His phone was dead, couldn’t reach out to us,” said Jess Shuck, the stepmom of the student.
It was a harrowing moment for the Altadena Middle School seventh-grader on Monday after his family says this happened.
“Just said that you got to get off, I’m done for the day,” said Shuck.
Shuck says her son had fallen asleep on the bus, missing his normal stop. Next thing he knew, he was getting kicked off the school bus at a Marathon gas station on Ray Road.
Shuck says the bus driver got a gas station employee to look after him.
“My son had no choice. He grabbed his backpack and got off, and luckily like I said, there was a kind gas attendant that was able to get him home,” said Shuck.
Shuck says her son is worried about what would happen next time.
“Anything could have happened to my son. And he was in the care of a bus driver that I would’ve trusted to at least take him somewhere where he would’ve been familiar or maybe take a little extra time to take him back to his stop,” said Shuck.
After ABC15 reached out to Kyrene School District, we learned they were taking action, telling us they started and later wrapped up their investigation and will recommend the bus driver be fired.
The board will decide in a meeting on Wednesday. For Shuck, it is a way to prevent this from happening again.
“The way that this was handled was completely wrong from start to finish, and I would think that any parent would be just as upset as I am currently with their child being treated like that,” said Shuck.
